Abarat

by Clive Barker

Life is short, And pleasures few, And holed the ship, And drowned the crew, But o! But o! How very blue The sea is!

“O little one, My little one, Come with me, Your life is done. Forget the future, Forget the past. Life is over: Breathe your last.”

With the wings of a bat, And a face with a scar, The fangs of a vampire, The tail of a snake; You open your mouth And the noise that you make Is a song that the Devil sings, Bitter and loud. Tell me, my baby, Was your mother proud?

“The Day is words and rage. The Day is order, earth and gold. It is the philosophers in their cities; It is the map-makers in their wastelands. It is roads and milestones, It is panic, laughter and sobriety; White, and all enumerated things. It is flesh; it is revenge; it is visibility. The Night is blue and black. The Night is silence, poetry and love. It is the dancers in their grove of bones, It is all transforming things. It is fate, it is freedom. It is masks and silver and ambiguity,

A soul of water, A soul of stone. A soul by name, A soul unknown. The hours unmake Our flesh, our bone. The soul is all; And all alone.

In the end, following the Dark Road is no less honorable than following the Light, as long as it is done with a clear purpose.”

Sometimes you need to let things strike your heart and not your head,